Online Backup Affiliate, Here\'s a lesson I learned the hard way... always redirect your affiliate links. There are a couple of good reasons to do this. You\'re less likely to have your affiliate commissions stolen is one of them, but more importantly, redirected links look neater and end in higher conversions. Having your links redirected also allows you to measure that conversion because you can tell how often your links are clicked on. Last but not least, this makes it easy to change links if a merchant decides to change affiliate programs or when a product is no longer available.
Here\'s a quick tip. Use something generic for your redirect link instead of a product name. This way Online Backup Affiliate you can easily change it to a different product if the original one no longer converts well or you\'re not happy recommending it any longer. But how do you redirect your links? There are a few different easy options. I\'ll share the four most common ones with you here:
cPpanel Redirects
If you have cPanel hosting, there\'s an easy way to set up and manage your redirects. Log into your cPanel and look for the redirects option under preferences. Always choose a permanent redirect. Next you want to choose the domain you want to redirect from. You\'ll find a list of domains you have hosted in this particular cPanel account. Choose the one you want, and then create the file name for your redirect (i.e. greenwidget). Last but not least, add the link you want the redirect to point to... in this case your affiliate link. Save your changes, test your link and you\'re done.
301 Redirects
Of course you can also hard code your 301 redirects in your.htaccess file. It\'s a simple line of code that you add to this particular file. I recommend using an ftp program like FileZilla to modify your files. Log into your hosting account via ftp and look for the.htaccess file in your root directory. This is important: Always start by making a backup copy of your current file. Then edit the file to include a line of code with the redirection information. It will look like this:
Redirect 301 / [redirect name].html http:// [your affiliate link]
Save your file and upload it back to your server. Test your redirect.
HTML Meta Refresh Redirects
Another option is something called an html meta refresh redirect. I Online Backup Affiliate used these quite a bit back when most of my sites where built with Microsoft FrontPage. If you search for \"html meta refresh redirect\" in your favorite search engine, you\'ll find some examples and code you can copy and paste. You simply create a new html document with the name you\'d like your redirect link to have (i.e. bestbluewidget.html), paste the code in there and replace the Online Backup Affiliate sample affiliate link with your own. Upload the html file to your server and test the redirect.
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